22 red flags someone is spying on your phone

“Free, unsecured WiFi at your local coffee shop is awfully convenient. Unfortunately, it’s easy for someone to spy on everything you do on there. If you are going to use unsecured WiFi, the best way to do it is to use a VPN (virtual private network) service to keep your connection secure. These are inexpensive and keep you safe. If you’re not going to do that, then be sure to never sign on to a bank website, and try to stay off your email as well. If you are going to check your email, always watch the address bar. Is the website correct? The website should say ‘https://’ instead of ‘http://’ as that added ‘s’ indicates a secure connection. There should also be a green lock symbol next to the URL. If you don’t have those indicators of a secure connection, do not put in any of your login information.” –Matthew Woodley, Woodley Digital Marketing

“You may also see your legitimate emails get blocked by other parties’ spam filters because your communications now look like they’re coming from a suspicious source.” –Mike Tanenbaum, Cyber Head for Chubb North America.

“Your bank sends you an SMS alert about a transaction that you didn’t do. Or you get a statement from your credit card company stating that you bought something that you never actually purchased.” –George Waller, CEO of BlockSafe Technologies and StrikeForce Technologies, Inc.

“Companies should move away from aggregating and collecting data about their users. The future of security must lie in a privacy-centric architecture where users can maintain the same ease of use – without friction – while having control over their data. This is crucial to fighting identity theft and privacy attacks.” –Mathias J. Klenk, Co-founder, Passbase.

Matt Wilson, Chief Information Security Advisor at BTB Security, advises taking these steps:

Change important passwords: However, the key point here is to NOT do it from the device you believe to be compromised or you could give the bad guys your new password.

Enable Multi-factor Authentication. Actually, everyone should do this now, wherever they can, and not wait for a compromised device. Many popular apps and services allow this (FaceBook, Google, major banks). While it doesn’t necessarily help you once your device is compromised, doing so now lessens the impact should your device get hit.

Restore your device. This can be a challenge, but it’s far easier today than it ever has been. The process depends on your device, but Apple and Google have straightforward and easily discovered directions for backing up (something else you should do regularly!) and restoring your device.

And watch out for the clear signs you’re about to be hacked.

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Source: RD.com